Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.
Paul TillichRead
Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Faith is deeply linked to our understanding of the ultimate reality, often symbolized as God, and contemplating life's meaning leads to acts of faith.
In this quote, Paul Tillich emphasizes the importance of faith as a vital concern for a higher reality, which he identifies symbolically as God. He suggests that those who seriously contemplate the meaning of life are naturally led to a state of faith, indicating that the search for meaning and the acknowledgment of a greater existence are intertwined.
Themes
FaithLifeMeaningGodReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of belief systems, one might quote this to illustrate the link between faith and the search for meaning.
More from Paul Tillich
All quotes →He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
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The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul TillichRead
The citizens of a city are not guilty of the crimes committed in their city; but they are guilty as participants in the destiny of [humanity] as a whole and in the destiny of their city in particular; for their acts in which freedom was united with destiny have contributed to the destiny in which they participate. They are guilty, not of committing the crimes of which their group is accused, but of contributing to the destiny in which these crimes happened.
Paul TillichRead
Wine is like the incarnation--it is both divine and human
Paul TillichRead
Man is able to decide for or against reason, he is able to create beyond reason or to destroy below reason
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Similar quotes
I view everything in the context of Lord Krishna's will, and for me, it is fine if things go in my favour or against.
Sushma SwarajRead
You couldn't be more wrong," I said. "You are buying into the cross-stitched sentiments of your parents' throw pillows. You're arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it." "You're a hard person to comfort," Augustus said. "Easy comfort isn't comforting," I said.
John GreenRead
Any group of persons – prisoners, primitives, pilots, or patients – develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it.
Erving GoffmanRead
No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness.
Hermann BrochRead
The wealth gathered by Jamsetji Tata and his sons in half a century of industrial pioneering formed but a minute fraction of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete; what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over.
J. R. D. TataRead
All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant.
Aldous HuxleyRead